Bathroom Design for Blind Child

Posted by drejand on 6/15/2006 at 9:09 PM

Hi,

I am the mother of a completely blind 3-year old boy. We are moving in to a new house where our son will have his own bathroom. Are there any tips for how to design the space (I already saw the "tips for bathroom" section, but I specifically want to know if having cabinet doors are preferable to open cabinets and if one-handled sink faucets are preferable to separate hot and cold faucets.

Re: Bathroom Design for Blind Child

Posted by johnsont on 10/1/2012 at 12:03 PM

I would suggest that you could use knobs on the cabinets which can be differentiated by feel. Attach an id tag in a shape that he can recognize or identify easily.
For more suggestions and advice on layout of bathrooms etc

Re:Bathroom Design for Blind Child

Posted by hotdog on 2/13/2007 at 9:49 PM

Hello i am from the uk . Here we have like a chain wharehouse tile company called topps tiles. you can look at there webite. they sell rubber non slip tiles, for 39p each. Iam having them put in the bathroom in our new house, as we have young children and bathrooms can be slippy at times. I don't know if this helps but may be you have similar stores which stock them.They also come in some nice colours.

Re:Bathroom Design for Blind Child

Posted by critter on 12/10/2006 at 2:09 AM

children are in a "learning mode" for the first two decades .either this child is going to spend a hell of a lot of time "holding it" or a stereotypical jewish mother is going to be acompanying this kid when he's 50 yrs old to make sure every bathroom is designed for him specifically , or he will learn to adapt to the world around him just like the average human has too . and , no , this child does not have a special situation , just a different situation .

Re:Bathroom Design for Blind Child

Posted by Wibke on 11/24/2006 at 10:50 PM

Did you talk with your child's doctor about the fact that he doesn't speak? Usually, children communicate by age 2, but for some reasons other children start speaking later. However, you should check on this, especially on his hearing, and maybe the doctor can suggest other tests that can be done to find out why he might not speak.

Re:Bathroom Design for Blind Child

Posted by drejand on 7/6/2006 at 9:39 PM

Thank you for your response. Unfortunately, my son does not speak yet, so I am unable to ask him what he would prefer. Since this is a new house, I wanted to know whether one-handed faucets are better than two faucets. Do you have any input on that?

Re:Bathroom Design for Blind Child

Posted by tlavelle on 6/19/2006 at 8:37 AM

I would say if you have the option of making the exact type of bathroom for your child I would make it the same type as he uses now. If he is use to using a certain type of faucet ot cabinet then dont change. As you know when you go out all public bathrooms are different so havong a constant at home would be a positive. Bathrooms outside the home are hard for the blind because all are different and we have to feel around in one of the dirties places. To be honest I try not to use public bathrooms because of that fact.
May I suggest you ask your child what type he would like since it will be his.